3 ms·
> is there a sane physical upper limit to power storage/generation in a given space (say, 1cc)? Start off with e=mc^2, revise downward with appropriate number
by ethbro 12y ago
> is there a sane physical upper limit to power storage/generation in a given space (say, 1cc)?
Start off with e=mc^2, revise downward with appropriate number of engineering constraints.
I'd imagine in practice that gets limited mostly by battery chemistry. So something like total reaction energy of components * conversion efficiency - conversion machinery mass - packaging / safety mass.
Which, afaict, is why "battery breakthroughs" all tend to be in the chemistry or conversion efficiency.
- deeviant 12y agoAs I understand it, much of the "battery breakthroughs" are generally along the lines of attempting to create a balance between capacity, discharge-recharge rate, safety and cost. The conversion efficiency of most batters is pretty good, it's making a long lasting, high capacity, quickly discharging/recharging and safe battery that's also cheap that is difficult. While pretty much everything above is related to chemistry/conversion efficiency, I was just trying to define the efforts a bit more along the goals.
- ctdonath 12y agoConsidering water is common and a typically heavy substance, that gives about 89,876,000 MJ/cc. Uranium is about 19x heavier, giving a hard practical upper limit (natural occurring) of 1,710,340,280 MJ/cc ... but is much harder to come by and maintain safely. Chemically, seems XeF2 has the upper bound on energy density, but I can't find the energy per volume (which, from molecular structure, looks astoundingly high). ...not that you want pure Fluorine as exhaust...